Excellent composition on both, but I prefer #1 overall. Perhaps a bit more contrast/drama in both? Also, if it would be up to me, I would clone out that white ship in the distance... attracts too much attention (the same goes for the previous post - The Pier).

The toning needs work.The ship in #1 doesn't bother me - actually I think its good to be there.But you can tone it down a bit if its too prominent.Its a disturbing element - you can use that to your benefit.

I wouldn't say so. I think The Pier has a certain otherworldly feeling to it. It is also simpler in its compositional elements (a good thing). Once again, I think the boat in The Pier should be either cloned out or downplayed (grayed).

I much prefer the pier, and the second of the present images is my second choice. For me, the white ship is an irrelevant distraction which I would clone out. The rocks on the left are marginally better, only because they mirror the curve f the pier, but they don't really add anything to the wonderful, other-worldly feeling conveyed by the original "Pier."

Chris, how can I get this image to look cleaner? I edited these in Silver Efex 2 but am not pleased with the overall grey tone you speak of. Would I play with the global adjustments or do selective editing? Also, should one start with global or local editing first?

Concerning toning my first step usually is to set the whitepoint and blackpoint in a way that the histogram is spread over the whole range. In photoshop I use the levels tool, In LR the Whites and Blacks sliders - taking care not to clip.

Second step usually is adjusting highlights and shadows or - if in photoshop - I use the curves tool.

Third step usually is local adjustments and there is a whole bunch of possibilities. In LR e.g. You have the clarity tool (careful!), the local brushes, the gradations. When I want to do more sophisticated stuff I move to photoshop, creating and adjusting a layer for each feature I want to change locally and then painting it in with a mask. This is the most dangerous part since you easily overcook the image here and destroy the overall natural look. Unsharp mask, soft light layers, blurred layers and layers with differing exposure/contrast settings are my favourite tools here and I paint them in as needed, usually taking care not to make the image look artificial, except I want a gross look.